59 



the years 1819-20, under the command of 

 Major Long, This was, perhaps, the best 

 appointed exploring party sent out by the 

 government, and in the result of its labors 

 amply repaid the attention bestowed upon 

 its equipment. Mr. Say was appointed 

 Zoologist, Mr. Jessup, Mineralogist. Dr. 

 Baldwin, and after his decease Dr. James, 

 was appointed Botanist and Geologist; 

 Messrs. Peale and Seymour as assistant 

 Naturalists ; in short, no means were spared 

 to render the expedition as complete as pos- 

 sible, and a small escort of soldiers gave 

 additional security to the enterprize. 



The party, consisting of twenty persons, 

 wintered at Council Bluff in 41^ N. Lat. 

 Leaving their winter quarters in the early 

 part of June, and following the course of the 

 La Platte, a tributary of the Missouri, they 

 reached the Rocky Mountains in thirty 

 days. The country through which they 

 passed was one continued barren plain, 

 with here and there isolated mountain 

 masses, rising to the height of 7-800 feet, 

 and composed of horizontal alternate strata 

 of secondary sandstone and breccia. The 

 soil is almost universally an arid, sterile 



